US obsession with beauty poses health risks, report says

The report, Beauty at Any Cost, conducted and published by the YWCA, underlines the fact that this obsession is also impacting economic well-being, as well as interpersonal relationships of women and young girls.

The report, which has been fronted by YWCA chairwoman Tracy Lakatua, claims that women are spending more and more money on beauty treatments and going to increasingly dramatic lengths to achieve their goals, including plastic surgery.

Exploting women through beauty​

Slamming the beauty industry for what the group sees as exploitation of women’s insecurities about their appearance. The group claims that this pressure leads to mental and emotional harm that manifests itself in low self-esteem and insecurity regarding their appearance.

Invariably these pressures and resulting insecurities lead to an unhealthy, competitive ‘mean girls culture’ the report highlights.

“We believe that the obsession with the idealized beauty and body image is a lifelong burden that takes a terrible toll on all young girls and women in this country,”​ YWCA USA CEO Dr. Lorraine Cole.

“What’s really new here is the sheer extent to which women and girls are now willing to go – literary causing physical harm – to be ‘beautiful’ according to the standards perpetuated by a youth-obsessed media culture with literally thousands of messages, 24 hours a day.”​

YWCA teams with filmmaker​​

To highlight the reports findings and its campaign to tackle the problem, the YWCA has teamed up with documentary filmmaker Darryl Roberts to become the distribution partner for his new film, ‘America the Beautiful’.

The film highlights what the organization says is the ‘harm inflicted by beauty obsession on women and girls.

The campaign follows in the footsteps of Unilever’s marketing and advertising campaign for the Dove brand, which featured the slogan, ‘real beauty’ and included images of women deemed to represent the wider population – quite the opposite of the super models used to promote many other brands.

However, after initial success, sales of the Dove brand have ceased to grow in recent quarters, with many industry observers believing that the marketing message, although initially very well received, has now become tiresome.